Cat Scratch Reader
The Saints defense isn’t what it looked like in Week 1, but why not?
Welcome to our weekly game pick series where I will attempt to guide you through picking every Carolina Panthers game of the 2024 season. At this point you know I'm not picking the Panthers and no amount of serious analysis of the team is going to change my mind or surprise any of us. They are who they are.
We had some intrigue between Weeks 3 and 6, approximately, where the team was at least fun to watch. That is gone now as the Panthers are now firmly back into Bryce Young evaluation mode.
Their opponent this week is the New Orleans Saints. The team that trashed fan expectations in the season opener in New Orleans. Going into halftime of that game down 30-3 against a division rival was a powerful reminder that we are all fans of one of the worst franchises in the NFL over the past many years. The Saints looked like world beaters and the Panthers looked like every sad afterthought we had collectively ignored all summer.
Fast forward nine weeks, and the Panthers still look the same but the Saints have fallen off of a cliff. They are 2-6, having dropped six straight games. Injuries have hurt them too, for sure, but the team overall is not in a great place. Derek Carr is expected to return from a weeks long injury, but even he can’t magically fix an anemic offense and a defense that nearly rivals the quality of the Panthers.
That said, the Saints are playing the “let them score on every possession for fun” version of the 2024 Panthers. It may not be another 47-10 shellacking, but the Saints have the talent to comfortably score more than 14 points against the Panthers. 14 points is the benchmark here because that’s Young’s season high offensive output for a single game.
The Panthers have scored 34 points total across the four games Young has started this season. That’s fewer than the Panthers scored in their win against the Las Vegas Raiders or than the Panthers surrendered in their losses to the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, the Chicago Bears in Week 5, the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6, or the Washington Commanders in Week 7.
That’s why my FanDuel pick for Week 8 is the New Orleans Saints. My pick every week is going to be whoever the Panthers opponent is until something changes. Starting Young because there is no hope left of a competitive season doesn’t count. My bet on the first significant change is the season. We’ll challenge that bet in 2025.
